800 calorie struggle

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posted by Mr Black
on 7 Apr 2018 at 23:12

Hi folks,
new here and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three month ago, also my apologies for the long first post.

After seeing a few things on the tube concerning diet and diabetes, and how I *may* possibly reverse my diabetes through diet, I started the ‘8 week 800 calorie’ plan on 3rd April with my wife, who’s pre-diabetic. The first couple of days was easy to reach the 800 calorie limit (no idea how though), I went over Thursday by 24 calories, but since yesterday, we’ve really struggled to actually reach the 800 limit. Yesterday I managed 745 and today 673, my wife is roughly the same.

The main problem is we’re just not hungry, we have a couple of poached eggs on one slice of wholemeal toast (two this morning) with a little spinach and some poached mushrooms at around 10:30’ish, that keeps us going till around 5’ish, then we have our dinner/evening meal. This is usually four or five different types of veg along with either steamed fish or some lean white meat followed by an apple for dessert.

My question is this… is it OK to stay under the 800 calorie limit or do we need to eat more? Doubling up on the veg isn’t an option, we tried that and we were stuffed to the point of being uncomfortable for the rest of the evening/night (funny how that never happened while I was munching my way through a 15″ pizza). We’ve both also tried to eat around lunchtime, even then we just really don’t want food, so we try to have a couple of machine coffee’s with milk to raise the calorie count.

My sole reason for being on this plan is to reverse my type 2 and to possibly stave off any further health problems in the near and distant future. I already have a high BP and on Statins too, so the possibility of coming off those meds too is very appealing, but I won’t hold my breath on that.

We’re also both impressed with our weight loss in such a short time too, since Tuesday I’ve lost 9lbs, my wife 4lbs. Neither of us managed that in our first week when we did the Slimming World plan a couple of years ago, although we did lose a fair amount of weight in the eighteen months we were there, my wife lost 4.5st and I lost 6st. Unfortunately we’ve both gained some back since we got bored with SW, and now need to do something about it.

Any advice welcome and appreciated folks.

Bob
posted by Luvtcook
on 7 Apr 2018 at 23:27

Mr Black: how lucky for you that you are finding yourself satisfied on this diet and even stuggling to hit 800 calories. I often find the same as reducing the carbs really helps kill the hunger. It allows me to be a bit more generous with heart healthy extra virgin olive oil for instance (great omega 3s), or have a bit more avocado etc.

If you are not hungry, I would simply focus on maximizing your nutrition rathan than forcing a few more calories into your diet. Also, Jason Fung (who is another leading proponent of intermittant fasting) feels avoiding too much of a predictible pattern helps keep your body “off guard” a bit….so having several low days may allow you a bit more on another.

Congratulations on a great start and hope things continue to go so smoothly for you.
posted by Mr Black
on 10 Apr 2018 at 12:34

Thanks Luvtcook, we do like to keep the diet varied, as having the same things each week gets very boring and you’re bound to fail. I like the ‘extra olive oil’ suggestion, not a fan of Avocados though. We did have a slight blip yesterday, we had a pub lunch with family, but we both chose the 600 cal options, though we both did have a bowl of chips each making the total for the meal of 720’ish. Having said that, we both felt hungry for the first time in a week. Just goes to show that having a higher carb day brings on the hunger more (for us anyway), so an apple each last night helped.

Well first week down, and 11lbs off for me and 5lb for my wife which is great, the most important thing is my BS is down slightly too. I came off the diabetic meds the day I started the plan last week, my BS was always around the mid to high 8’s, some days the mid to high 9’s even on the meds, I tried different things to eat but nowt would bring it down. Thanks to this plan and the work of Professor Taylor, Dr Mosley, and others, I’ve managed to bring my BS down to the high 7’s… still way to high but it’s a start and early days yet.
Bob
posted by Mumofcrazynamedkids
on 16 Apr 2018 at 18:50

How are you doing in week 2?
posted by Mr Black
on 19 Apr 2018 at 08:16

Well week 2 ended with just a 2lb loss for both of us, which is still very good, 13lb and 7lb over 2 weeks isn’t to be sniffed at. My BS is staying the same though, back into the mid 8’s again… still early days though, it’ll come down as I’m determined to reverse the diabetes before our trip to Cyprus in mid August.
Bob
posted by Marxistfood
on 22 Apr 2018 at 22:04

is it ok to “save” calories eg eat 7oo cals for 6 days saving the 600 calories towards a birthday meal coming up thanks also can’t find a direct answer about jackfruit is it low carb many thanks
posted by alliecat
on 22 Apr 2018 at 22:21

I’m sorry, marxistfoods… I found nutritritional data rather easily on the internet. I c of sliced jackfruit contains 157 cal.,
net carbs 35.9g, sugars 31.5g. Clearly this is a tropical fruit, and not BSD friendly. Very sorry 🙂 🙂 🙂

Allie
posted by Mr Black
on 26 Apr 2018 at 10:24

Well week three isn’t going so well, 7lb gain so far, mainly because of too many Birthday meals out (wife’s)…. still, once Saturdays over we can get back into it 100% again.
Even with the weight gain, my BS levels have stayed relatively stable with two minor up’s, still too high though. I’m determined to reverse this type 2 curse, and before we go to Cyprus in August.

Bob